US citizen allowed to work remotely for US company in Canada as PR?

[lucky_man]

Dear CanadaVisa, does anyone know of any reason that a US citizen could not keep their US job and work remotely while living in Canada with Canadian PR?

Assuming of course that the employer is agreeable and that residency requirements are met. It would involve a lot of cross-border travel, at least a couple times a month.

Everything I read about this seems focused on it being a workaround for US work visas. But in this case my wife is already a US citizen whose work is just not terribly portable to Canada where we want to cohabitate (I’m Canadian).

I know there are workarounds like a POE or working as an independent contractor. But her work’s HR office is not that sophisticated and she’s already a W2 employee. And so far I haven’t seen anything that would suggest she would be running afoul of PR restrictions by maintaining the status quo but I may not be looking in the right places.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

 

[Ponga]

No reason at all. The only requirement to maintain PR status, is the Residency Obligation of 730 days in Canada for each rolling 5 year period. If your wife were to cross the border daily, for example, each of those days would still count as a full day in Canada. Even crossing on a Monday and returning late Wednesday, would only count as one day out of Canada (Tuesday).

In the event that your wife's employer is not receptive to working remotely and would be required to travel to/from the U.S. office, keep very accurate records of all border crossings since the information will be very valuable when applying to renew the PR Card.

 

[armoured]

I know there are workarounds like a POE or working as an independent contractor. But her work’s HR office is not that sophisticated and she’s already a W2 employee.

Tax filing can get a bit complicated of course - if resident in Canada will have to file in Canada as well, short form is that it's probably advisable to hire tax professionals aware of the situation. But it's not all that rare.

 

[lucky_man]

It's a relief to hear that among all the complications of establishing a home together, PR restrictions on her remote work don't need to be one of them! We will definitely hire a cross-border tax accountant to help us figure out our situation on that side of things. Thank you both for your help.